Connecting the dots: top news stories for Thursday, June 9

Homicide and gun violence are reaching levels not seen in decades in both San Jose and East Oakland — and the community is taking note. A San Jose group called People Acting in Community Together (PACT) held a meeting this week with police and city leaders to share residents’ stories and demand effective action from the police department…

And in East Oakland, where a shooting occurs within half a mile of Greenleaf Elementary School every five days, Oakland Community Organizations organized a peace walk of hundreds of students, parents, and neighbors on Tuesday. Pedestrians shouted, blared horns, and grilled attending city officials about providing better lighting and more police presence in the area so that kids can walk safely to and from school…

Also on the crime beat, students in Richmond are glad that the city has decided painting a mural is not a crime. Gompers High School students are about to complete repainting artwork on a vacant building that the city originally forced them to cover up, despite the fact that they’d gotten permission from the building’s owner…

Nor will it be a crime anymore to fly to Cuba from Oakland later this year. Oakland International Airport will be the first in the Bay Area to offer direct flights to Havana, starting with charter flights this summer and regular flights in December. Although travelers will still face tighter restrictions on their justifications for travel to Cuba than to, say, Hawaii, Oakland’s step reflects the Obama administration’s decision to loosen the limits…

Limits are also loosening on undocumented immigrants’ access to city services in Richmond, where the City Council voted unanimously to develop municipal ID cards for residents, regardless of immigration status. Offering a government ID to undocumented residents means that they will be able to do things like open bank accounts, but the cards are designed to be appealing to all residents, combining access to libraries, pools, and public transportation…

Public transportation woes continue in San Francisco, where Muni operators soundly rejected a management contract offer that would have frozen wages and reduced overtime pay in an effort to save millions of dollars over a three-year period…

If commuters bypass Muni and opt for bicycle travel, other problems emerge — like getting hurt or killed. The Bay Citizen’sbicycle accident map of nine Bay Area counties shows statistics and hotspots, prompting this columnist to reflect on his own accidents and tumbles…

But for one San Francisco-based nineteen-year-old, it’s no accident that he’s not in college. Dale Stephens is launching what he calls the UnCollege Movement alongside his own Web-based company. Why? Well, he says, “I want to change the notion that a college degree is the only path to professional success”…

It is not, however, a great professional success on PG&E’s part to have withheld information it had decades ago about a gas leak in a San Bruno pipeline. The leak, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, was just nine miles from the site of a deadly explosion and fire last fall.